664 10/12 11:10 (Autumn, Day, Midrar's Capital, Sabel's Home)
Luna watched the way Amber was carefully guiding Sabel through their cooking, her head resting on Mafel's laps while a pale hand softly passed through her silver hair, her red eyes half-narrowed in pleasure at the soft touches while most of her attention was spent investigating her own Soul and Skills, seeking the greatest points of instability.
Just in time, to observe how finally her four unstable Growth Skills finished gestating, stabilizing within her Soul and flooding her body with a new wave of power, increasing the amount of Astral Ichor her body naturally contained to exactly 700, its Recovery Efficiency and even the effect it would have on her statistical abilities.
After once more using her trick with her Domain holding 'Rejuvenating Fount' and her Artifacts, she was able to progress the advancement of her Orichalcum Essence Conversion's First Step by 0.8%, reaching the 5% mark, leaving herself with 600 Units and a single Charge of her Sunless Mantle.
"Why the flash of disappointment in your Skill? Shouldn't you already know from your Records the Milestones involved?" Mafel asked, curious, only for Luna to shake her head from her lap.
"No. The only thing equal between owners of this Skill is the total number of Milestones, thirty, the placement of the first and last one and, finally the general effects of the Skill itself. In fact, there was an example of a Lunarian possessing twenty-nine Milestones within the Blood section alone and another that was fully the opposite, the Milestones far in the back. The former was the much luckier of the two."
"I suppose so. If one considers that each Milestone grants 1/1'000 of one's own Reserves, all of them combined would mean a 3% increase in their Magicules daily... Wow, now that I think about it properly, it is quite the unfair Skill." Mafel blinked to herself a couple of times.
"Yeah, yeah, it is." Luna merely nodded, well aware of the immense and ever-growing advantage that even a single Milestone would mean, especially considering that her own Astral Ichor was based on her Magicule amount.
While she was watching her Mate, Luna's ear twitched once, her much sharper earing allowing her to immediately hear the door slowly slid open, causing her to righten herself in an instant, red eyes narrowed as she challenged herself on figuring out as much of them as possible before she could personally confirm their identities.
The only sound she could feel at first was the door, silently counting the time between its opening and closing, comparing it to their own and judging it be shorter, sure, but not excessively so.
Concentrating on her hearing even further, being able to feel a single, light yet sure pair of steps coming towards them, accompanied by another, barely perceptible to even her highly enhanced senses, pair.
Drowning out all other sounds, she was able to finally hear the ruffling of their clothes in time with each step and breath, thing that mentally confirmed for her the identity of the two new arrivals in the brief second before they called out their return.
A mostly meaningless effort, sure, if one didn't consider it to be training for her Enhancement: Senses as she did, but it was still a way to explore the current limits of her body and computational ability.
Luna sat back up, rightening herself in a moment as her eyes rapidly scanned the room around them, searching with her True Sight for any distortion in the air, being able to exclude this way the possibility of an invisible intruder.
Satisfied, she leaned her head on Mafel's shoulder, most of her muscles loosening up at the same moment as Sabel's unaccompanied parents silently joined the two in observing their daughter cook under the Phoenix's careful guidance, only the latter recognizing their arrival with a brief glance before turning her full attention on their distracted Human.
Just in time for Sabel's parents to join them in their observation, Bellemire carefully observing how her daughter was reacting to Amber's orders, searching for any trace of distress in her cute daughter while Sarn sat near his daughter's lovers.
"So, how exactly does it work between the four of you?" He asked, his black eyes being easily able to see the affectionate behaviour of all of them. "I couldn't imagine being able to handle three of my Belle."
At his playful and very quiet question, Mafel could only smile slightly. "Our case is a little different than that." She playfully responded. "Instead, each of us is handled by the three others. And, to be fully honestly, I doubt your wife is any harder to deal with than Luna here."
The Elf's light ribbing earned her a harsh poke right into her side from the Lunarian, the former Specter rapidly retreating as the latter decided to take her revenge right here and now, uncaring of the presence of Sabel's parents.
"Mercy! Oh mercy, please spare me!" The grey-haired one's playful pleas fell upon deaf hears, the white-haired one standing up too and starting her chase, holding back most of her speed to render this a challenge while remaining careful to not damage the house in any way.
"Mercy, eh? Why are you pleading for someone else to help you against me?" Luna's voice sounded out, full of what at first sounded like righteous anger, but was instead just thinly veiled amusement.
This chase, however, lasted less than twenty seconds, the Vampiric one easily catching the Elvish one despite holding back most of her physical ability and then dragging her right back to their previous spot, this time Mafel remaining trapped within Luna's arms.
Not that she really tried to escape once in the red-eyed one's hold, much to the amusement of Sarn. "I see. But wouldn't it be quite hard to handle emotionally? Even if all of you feel something for each other, well... Not everyone can so easily share their feelings with other People, not always. And..."
The Guildmaster stopped in his words briefly, turning towards Amber. "...And each of you has a different lifespan, don't you? Vampires and Phoenixes don't have a limited lifespan, Elves naturally live around a millennium while Humans while Humans, even with the proper care, seldom reach the two centuries. And Status Alteration Resistance does not affect natural aging."
"Her Skill Evolved into Status Alteration Immunity." Thanks to her clarification, Luna was able to observe the minute flinch in both of her Mate's parents.
"But you are correct, it doesn't influence her aging; however, we are sharing both our emotions and lifespans together. Upon reaching their physical prime, neither Mafel nor Sabel will physically age further than that. At the same time, our emotions cannot be faked nor misjudged. It renders misunderstanding, well, quite hard."
At Luna's explanation, Mafel's eyes widened first, surprised that she explained all this without any prompting at all, especially considering their lack of surprise to the Evolved Skill.
"Sabel wants them in her life." Was Luna's only response to her confusion, at the same time affirming to all three of her interlocutors that she didn't miss Sarn and Bellemire's suspicious lack of reaction to her words.
The four then turned their full attention back towards Sabel and Amber, this issue postponed for now.
"No, not like that!" Amber's correction sounded out, her Pyrokinesis flaring to slightly increase the temperature of various foods, a small and precise change that would let the ingredients more easily transfer their taste.
"Sorry, sorry! I was not exactly taught how to cook professionally! Or using my Skills with it, for that matter!" Sabel protested back in her own defences, earning only a burning gaze from the Phoenix.
"Less whining, more cooking!" The immediate retort of the blonde caused the two to briefly start bickering, their hands continuing to move over the stove, moving pans as and when needed, a precise amount of heat fluctuating as directed by the judgement of her Heat Sight.
"I know! I don't need you to tell me that!" Her words only earned faux scorn from Amber, the Phoenix continuing to offer various corrections to the taller one, undeterred by her protests.
All the while Sabel remained blissfully ignorant that her parents had already returned home and were currently enjoying the sight of her banter, if so it could be called, with Amber.
It was, after all, clear sign that she was still their little girl at her core.
A good three minutes later, time which Luna, Mafel, Sarn and Bellemire did their best to be as silent as possible to dodge any chance that Sabel would become aware of them, their Human finally nodded, the next meal ready for when her parents would finally return home.
"Acceptable." Amber begrudgingly complimented, unable to mask her satisfaction and pride from her Mates thanks to their Mark.
Sabel, satisfied, turned towards Luna and Mafel, silently asking for praises only for her eyes to widened immediately, her gaze immediately locking onto her parents sitting at their side and from their position by quite a long time.
Her mouth opened in an instant, freezing in place, her widened eyes silently begging for it all to be an illusion while her face inexorably reddened ever more intensely. "Y-you-... Ehm, I mean, I... What are you doing here?" She finally asked, stopping multiple times before finally pulling out her words, Amber behind her making sure the food was fully ready.
"What do you mean? We just returned home from work to see our darling daughter again after so long, taking advantage of it to properly meet her partners." Bellemire gently teased, watching with pleasure as her flustered daughter tried to come up with something to say, at the non-existent mercy of her family.
Under five different pairs of eyes, Sabel silently wished for Gaea to split open and then close around her, resigning herself to a long period of teasing over this somewhat blatant sign of attempted culinary bribery.
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